A prominent building, situated along the east end of London’s South Bank close to Blackfriars Bridge, has recently undergone a thorough refurbishment, with Air Diffusion, Actionair and Naco products being installed throughout the building. It was constructed in the 1970s, designed to be a luxury hotel; however, the struggling UK economy at the time meant the building was instead used as office space.

Following completion of its revamp in autumn 2015, the prestigious building was shortlisted as the 2016 New London Architecture Award for office interiors. The original office space has been completely refurbished into an open-plan space intended to encourage flexible-style working, in addition to a new wing built to accommodate an extra office block.

Fan coils

Actionair supplied more than 1,000 Hydropac Fancoil units throughout the building which were installed by leading international infrastructure group, Balfour Beatty. All units were fitted with BACnet controls, pressure independent control valves and commissioning sets. Significant and expensive mock-ups were built for type testing, including thermal and acoustic tests and the use of dry ice for testing the vulnerability of the units to freezing outdoor conditions. Actionair was able to make the many bespoke variants needed to fit around and work with the features of the old building.

Diffusers and Grilles

Since 2014, the building has been the headquarters for a popular, multinational sports manufacturer. Its striking new offices have the brand's motif expressed throughout its three floors alongside Air Diffusion’s prominent 3 slot 25 Linear Slot Diffusers with supporting plenum boxes. Air Diffusion products have been installed across 8 of the 11 floors within the building. Our Air Diffusion Applications Engineer, Mark Bishop, commented “It was a challenging project which involved a number of site visits to monitor the installations of our products - the office areas now completed are very impressive”.

Other former office space on floors three, four and five has been completely redesigned into a luxurious hotel for a global company - the original intentions for the space finally realised. This transformation was designed under the creative direction of Tom Dixon OBE, the self-taught industrial designer, whose work has been celebrated in museums across the globe, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

All 359 masculine deco-styled rooms have been fitted with Air Diffusion Linear Bar Grilles, with completely bespoke grilles installed under a number of the bedroom windows. Air Diffusion’s FlowBar Slot Diffusers with bespoke elements were fitted to some of the balcony rooms. The hotel also offers guests an array of dining and drinking areas, including a chic, award-winning cocktail bar and riverside rooftop terrace, which were equipped with Air Diffusion Linear Slot Diffusers, measuring 25mm and 2 slots wide. Other areas of the building, such as its basement-level cinema, have been provided with a myriad of Air Diffusion products, including Linear Wall & Floor Grilles, Jet Nozzle Diffusers and adjustable Ceiling Swirl Diffusers.

Louvres

The revamp has involved the installation of Naco's PH Series Penthouse Metal Louvre on the roofs of the first and third floors of the building, with a special configuration feature as Air Diffusion's Egg Crate Grille was used within the Louvre frame. Naco’s 75S Louvre Screen provided in Knock-Down (KD) form has been installed alongside the stylish rooftop terrace and sunset bar.

Throughout the project, our Product Brand Managers were closely involved at site meetings with the project Consultant, Architects, Main Contractor and Mechanical Sub Contractors in advising product solutions for the project.

The project perfectly illustrates the diverse, capable and flexible nature of Swegon Air Management and its brands; a successful collaboration between Actionair, Air Diffusion and Naco.

Naco

We design, draw, supply and install so that not only do we match your requirements precisely in terms of function but also in style, finish and colour, allowing architects and designers to create a pleasing architectural feature as well as ventilation or screening control within the external cladding of a building.